I always imagined being a mother one day, and when I was really young, I thought I would have kids in my mid-20s. My mom was young when she had me and my siblings, and I love how young she is now that I’m in my mid-30s. Well, I guess things change a lot as we grow up and enter adulthood. When I finally got to my mid-20s I thought maybe my late 20s would be good, but then I found myself continuously pushing that hypothetical age when I would finally decide was the “right time” to have children. Finally, at the age of 32, married to my best friend, and feeling like I’m somewhat of an actual adult, I decided to make a BIG decision; I went and got my IUD removed! Eek, it could happen now. I did use an app to track my cycle to try and not get pregnant right away, but again, time seemed to be this mystical thing that just went by, and I finally realized something: THERE WILL NEVER BE A RIGHT TIME (for me, at least). I realized that I would always have more that I wanted to do, new goals or things I wanted to climb, and I would always want to continue to push my physical and mental limits. There are so many places I want to see and climb at, and new business ventures to start. At the end of the day, I realized that I COULD still do all this while being a great mother!

Something that made me feel more confident with this realization, was seeing all the bad-ass women out there sharing their motherhood journey. Women are strong, resilient, incredible and so brave for many reasons, but to decide to share your body and comfort for nearly a year to create such a beautiful little part of you is nothing less than simply amazing. These women, from near and far that I look up to, have made me feel braver and ready to embark on my journey of pregnancy and becoming a parent, with my incredible and supportive husband, Robin. Thank you, Robin!

Now I am 35 and 5 months pregnant with our baby girl! I have been enjoying sharing my personal journey on IG, and not just the good times. I have always been one that likes to keep things a bit more “real”. I like to share my story hoping that it may help others, in the way that seeing women’s journeys helped me. At the end of the day, I feel like we all just want to feel relatable to one another. Any time I have gone through something tough, I found that reaching out to others who have gone through a similar thing or even posting on my own IG about my issue, and reading people’s amazing responses about how they have had similar things happen to them, has always really helped me! Being able to connect with others, even if you have never physically met them before is a cool and powerful thing we get to do thanks to social media (and don’t get me wrong, I still think there are quite a few bad things about S.M. as well).

For me, when people ask, “How are you finding pregnancy?”, I usually say, “Well I wouldn’t say it’s fun.” This is very true for me. For 9 months you share your body, and the first trimester is so up and down while you get used to the surge of new hormones radiating throughout your body. The second month, I felt constantly nauseous, and people would keep telling me to be thankful that I wasn’t throwing up and that it could be worse. And oh, the smells! My superpower all of a sudden became my nose. I even had to make my poor pup Leo, whom I love so much, each outside every meal because I couldn’t stand the smell of his food. Luckily, things started to get better in the 3^rd month. I could start to tolerate coffee again, and I LOVE coffee. Leo’s food went back to only putting me off a little bit, and I felt like I could stomach protein again.

The good thing about the first trimester is that you don’t feel like your insides are all crammed up, AND the Relaxin hormone (the hormone that causes your ligaments to loosen) hasn’t really set in yet. I climbed quite normally for the first 2 months and didn’t change much at all with my training. However, I remember when I got close to the 3^rd-month mark, all of a sudden, I was scared to drop off from the top of the bouldering wall. Then the next session, I was scared to even go for a move that I had a slight potential of falling on halfway up. These feelings were quite bizarre for me at first, because they felt like they came out of nowhere. No one told me I couldn’t drop from the top of the wall, or that I had to stop bouldering. You are advised at some point to not fall on your stomach, back, or butt, and honestly, I never really want to fall in any of those, even when I’m not pregnant!

Now we are in the 2nd trimester and energy levels are going back up, but everything is feeling so much harder. I didn’t know that the relaxing hormone hits you hard in the 3rd and 4^th months. That was a shock to the system. It felt like overnight, my superpowers (that are my shoulders) were taken away from me. Literally one session I was able to send V10 and V11s in a roof, and the next session V8s were my max. All the people that say, “It’s like you have your own personal weight-vest for training while you’re pregnant”, I tell them that, up until this point, that hasn’t been the hardest part at all. It has been the Relaxin hormone, and a lot of men, have no clue what that is! I feel very safe while climbing still, with regards to my baby girl, but I’m trying to listen to my body as best as possible, for my ligaments and tendons while this hormone is circulating my body.

For example, I have been running just about every other day still, but I just took 4 days off since my lower back wasn’t feeling the best, instead, I did more mobility work and things that wouldn’t hurt it more. About 2 weeks ago I felt that my right shoulder was not feeling great either, so I took about 4 days off from climbing and did more rehab for it and it helped a lot! These are the most important things I’m learning for continuing to train throughout pregnancy, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!!!

I know I talked a good bit about the uncomfortable things, BUT the coolest part is that I have started to feel her move and kick on the outside for the last couple of weeks. This is such a magical feeling that I can’t even describe how wonderful it truly is! I have my hand on my stomach ALL the time because I LOVE feeling her move around. Before I got pregnant, I always thought it would potentially freak me out being able to feel the baby kick, kind of like an alien in you or something, but it’s this wonderful connection that only a pregnant person gets to fully understand.

We are halfway through the pregnancy journey, and I’m still climbing, bouldering, running, and doing my strength training. Being a slightly competitive person, I like to keep telling my husband that I’m still outclimbing him! Let’s see how long I can keep that up. We climb about every other day, as long as I’m feeling good. We will do one day of bouldering and then the next session of sport climb and on the “off” days we will do our cardio, cross-training, weights, and other strength training. One of the important things I have starteddoing is working with a trainer to help keep my deep core and pelvic floor healthy and strong. A lot of my strength and conditioning routine is made by my trainer, with things focusing on keeping healthy, so that I can continue to train safely through pregnancy and have a better postpartum journey.

Everyone has a different pregnancy journey and path. We shouldn’t look at someone else’s story and compare or think that’s what mine could or should look like. It’s hard at first, because you want people to tell you what you can and can’t do. You want these clear-cut answers, but that’s not for others to tell you. Yes, there are important rules like, don’t fall on your stomach, butt, and so on, but you will find what is “right for you” and what you are comfortable with.

One thing I just found out the other day that made me anxious, is that in my 20-week fetal anatomy scan is that our baby girl’s umbilical cord is attached to the placenta in not the most ideal place. This condition is called, Marginal Cord Insertion or MCI, otherwise everything looked great so far. After chatting with our midwives, they reassured us that this doesn’t mean anything bad right now. The main thing they look out for with MCI is that your baby is growing healthy and safely. The main complication of MCI is stunted growth and or lack of oxygen, but right now our baby girl looks good, and she measured in the 66th percentile. They will add a couple more scans than normal to make sure she is still getting good nutrients and growing well. As a new and soon-to-be mother, this of course was a worry and still is a little, but the team we are working with is so nice, calming, and reassuring. It’simportant to have a good team around you that helps keep you calm and support you in the way you need. I have found if you are worried about anything or think your questions are “too much” don’t keep it in, ask the questions, and say what is making you nervous because keeping it in can make you have more anxiety and that’s not helpful for the baby either.

This is all new territory for me, every day I’m learning and growing, figuratively and

literally. I’m sure it’s going to continue to get harder and I will have to continue to listen to my body and adapt my training. I take inspiration from all the other mothers and friends that have gone through pregnancy and postpartum and have adjusted their lives to include their beautiful children, but still doing the things that they love and that make them, them. I have seen that, though it might be hard, you can still lead the life you want to live with a growing family. There are so many things that makeup who we are, and having a family is another one of those things!

Thank you for reading my thoughts and feelings through the first half of my pregnancy Journey, and I will keep documenting my story, hoping that it could maybe help others as they embark on their own journeys.